Explosions reported in Bandar Abbas after reported strike on Iran's Qeshm Island

Explosions were heard in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on 2 November, according to a post by the X account @Osint613 citing an Iranian report. The blasts reportedly followed a strike on nearby Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz ¹. The post did not say what caused the explosions, and no casualties were reported.

Accounts of what happened on Qeshm differ in emphasis. A post by @ItsRealAlec said Iran's state news agency IRNA reported five explosions on the island and that air defences had been activated ². The same post cited a US official as saying the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired a missile from Qeshm at a US aircraft over Hormuz ². Neither claim has been independently verified, and the original IRNA report and the official's full remarks could not be reviewed directly.

Other social media accounts claimed that explosions were also heard in Kermanshah, in western Iran, and Omidiyeh, in the southwestern province of Khuzestan. Those reports appear to rest on a single online account and have not been confirmed by Iranian officials or independent outlets. Reports of blasts in Jask, a port on the Gulf of Oman, remain unconfirmed even in those accounts.

Further claims circulating alongside the reports could not be verified. Some accounts attributed to US officials described American strikes inside Iran as defensive, while the IRGC was reported to have claimed it shot down US drones, a claim US Central Command was reported to have rejected. None of these statements could be independently checked.

The reports came amid a series of incidents around the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Gulf over the preceding days. Separate reporting described US strikes on Qeshm Island late on 2 November, and there were unconfirmed reports of IRGC attacks on commercial shipping in the strait on 1 November. An Iranian drone was also reported to have exploded in Khasab, in Oman's Musandam peninsula, on 31 October.

The Bandar Abbas and Qeshm area has been the site of earlier incidents in the conflict. In May, Anadolu Agency reported that Iranian media described several explosion-like sounds near Bandar Abbas and Qeshm, with the source initially unclear. At the time, the semi-official Fars news agency said part of the commercial section of Bahman pier had been hit during an exchange of fire with what it called enemy forces.

As of the latest available reporting, no Iranian provincial official, Iranian military body or US authority had publicly addressed the reported explosions in Bandar Abbas, Kermanshah or Omidiyeh, and there was no information on damage or casualties ¹².